Captain Jason Berry
Government and Media Relations
(360) 596-4010 – office
(360) 596-4015 – fax
http://www.wsp.wa.gov
*** For Immediate Release***
Date:
May 31, 2011
Contact:
Lieutenant Jeffrey Beazizo
Phone:
(360) 598-3800
E-mail:
jeff.beazizo@wsp.wa.gov
Washington State Third Best in Nation for Truck Safety
-Industry Group Credits Strong Enforcement with Reducing Crashes-
Olympia -- The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) reports the state of Washington is one of the top three states to have the best record for commercial motor vehicle (CMV) safety in the United States. Only Indiana and New Mexico have lower rates of collisions involving CMV's.
CVSA based its ranking on a study by the American Trucking Research Institute (ATRI). CVSA praised the Washington State Patrol’s (WSP) strong enforcement of commercial vehicle laws. They were quick to add that WSP also looked at the behavior of passenger vehicle drivers in the vicinity of semi trucks.
The CVSA report called out WSP’s use of tactics proven to reduce truck crashes.
- Focusing on aggressive driving behavior
- Targeting both commercial vehicle and automobile drivers
- Using marked and unmarked patrol cars
- Having an internal, performance-based system to direct enforcement by monitoring crash types, contributing behaviors and locations.
“Although semi trucks can be intimidating, most truck crashes turn out to be the fault of the passenger car driver,” said Captain Darrin Grondel of the WSP’s Commercial Vehicle Division. “Our enforcement efforts have focused on dangerous behavior, whether by truck or passenger car drivers.” He also added, “we cannot do it alone. We work closely with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Washington State Department of Transportation, Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission, partners from local law enforcement agencies that help with enforcement, and the Washington Trucking Association to facilitate and support traffic safety initiatives and education.”
Local law enforcement agencies from the Cities of Buckley, DuPont, Edmonds, Federal Way, Fife, Lakewood, Liberty Lake, Maple Valley, Spokane, and the sheriff’s offices from Clark, Grays Harbor, Lewis, Pend Oreille, Pierce, King, Kitsap, Snohomish, and Spokane Counties all have partnered with CVD to make their roadways safer.
The ATRI study found that, with respect to trucks only, certain violations are predictors of future crashes. WSP has always looked at the type of behavior known to cause collisions, and then focused enforcement accordingly. The top five collision causing violations found involving trucks are speeding, following too closely, failure to yield, crossing over the center line, and driver inattention. The results are reported bi-monthly directly to Chief John Batiste. “Objective enforcement based on solid data is how we’re able to reduce crashes of all kinds, from commercial vehicles to DUIs,” Batiste said. “You look at what’s causing vehicles to crash and then go after those causes.”
Drivers who had convictions for failure to signal a lane change had a 96% increased chance of having a subsequent collision. Drivers who made illegal lane changes had an 80% chance of a subsequent crash. Drivers, who falsified their log books or drove too many hours, frequent indicators of fatigue, had a greater than 40% chance of a subsequent collision.
WSP Commercial Vehicle Division (CVD) deployed the “Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT)” team to areas with high collision rate to make it clear that everyone needs to share the road safely and be attentive to their driving.
“We’ll use this information to target our enforcement and resources at the right violations and the right locations,” Grondel said. “Hopefully we can turn these crash predictors into early interventions to break the cycle and continue to reductions in CMV related collisions.”